Public shouldn't have to fight to get COVID-19 information https://www.idahopress.com/opinion/...cle_0c23a229-bdce-52ab-b0b3-94827267b05e.html Newspapers should not have to involve attorneys to get their hands on basic public health information. But sure enough, that’s what the newspaper in Orlando, Florida, the Orlando Sentinel, was forced to do to get a copy of a weekly status report the White House Coronavirus Task Force sends to each of the state’s governors. Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis’ office should have been posting these reports every single week for all of Florida to see. Instead, it’s been keeping them secret. All this for a document the state has been getting every week since early summer. They knew full well there wasn’t anything in it that needed redacting. There isn’t any private information in the report. Nothing even close to one of Florida’s gazillion public records exemptions. Just data. Never mind that. The state was determined to withhold the report even as infections are starting to spike here and around the country. This should come as a surprise to no one, journalists or everyday Floridians alike. The DeSantis administration has set new standards for obstructing the release of public information. Neither of the last two governors has shown any interest in curtailing the Legislature’s annual effort to further reduce the public’s access to public information, allowing Florida’s once-proud tradition of open government to continue its slow but steady decline. The Sentinel ultimately got the state coronavirus report, but only after a newspaper attorney sent an email reminding state officials about the importance of releasing public health information during a pandemic, something the state surely knew already. By then, the Oct. 11 report was 10 days old. The delay was either due to the inability (or unwillingness) of bureaucrats to triage the urgency and relevance of public records requests, or to the state’s desire to keep information in the report hidden. The report, covering the week of Oct. 5, was a combination of good and alarming news. The good news at the time was that the overall number of new cases and positive cases were fairly stable for the week. The alarming news was that 13% of the state’s nursing homes had a patient contract COVID-19 while 24% of nursing homes had an employee get the disease. It also warned of increasing cases at a mega-retirement area where President Donald Trump held a tightly packed rally on Nov. 23, with DeSantis in attendance. The report encouraged outdoor gatherings but recommended social distancing and mask wearing, little of which was apparent at any of the other rallies Trump and DeSantis have attended in Florida since the report was issued. That includes one in Sanford on Oct. 12, where the governor high-fived the audience on his way to the stage. Judging from his own actions, the governor is either not reading the task force’s reports or he’s choosing to ignore them because he views elections and more important than public health. Or possibly both. DeSantis can do what he wants with the information. What his administration can’t do is hide it from everyone else.
Columbia Study Finds Florida and Texas Could Have Avoided 11,000 Deaths Each With Canada’s COVID Measures https://www.thedailybeast.com/colum...11000-deaths-each-with-canadas-covid-measures
"DeSantis for the win" --- Nobody wants to travel to Florida... Fewer snowbirds flocking to Florida as COVID-19 persists https://www.sun-sentinel.com/corona...0201031-wr3265mcjvfqjpysdziyoc7xfm-story.html The annual migration of snowbirds to South Florida has begun, but you may not notice. As COVID-19 cases spike across the nation, South Floridians who usually watch beaches and restaurants fill up with out-of-towners are wondering the same thing: How big will this year’s flock be? Not as big as usual. Each year, thousands of residents from northern U.S. and Canadian cities leave their homes to escape the bone-chilling cold of winter and head south to Florida for extended stays that often last into the early spring. They come by planes, trains, cars, luxury motor coaches and RVs with small boats in tow. County tourism bureaus don’t closely track snowbird traffic. But at the start of the Fort Lauderdale International Boat Show this week, Mayor Dean Trantalis guessed that the number of seasonal visitors could be off by as much as 20% to 25%. The mayor said he has a brother in Connecticut, who, along with his wife, elected to stay home this year. (More at above url)
Iiiii don't know about that one. A little premature speculating either way. NorthEast and Florida are about "in the same boat" at the moment. Snowbirds come in waves. Some come in the early fall, some in the late fall, some before Christmas, and finally the rest after New Years.
Or maybe Florida and Texas should follow proper public health practices to address COVID in order to save a large number of lives.
When I was in Florida a couple of weeks back, the place was packed and patrons were not wearing masks in restaurants/bars. Some business required them but I did not go into those. By the by, I still have not felt sick since my return, nor when I was there.----not sure why not.